Collecting and analyzing data follows observational steps in science inquiry. To get inspired about expanding your students’ science experiences, read about the data collection by first and second grader teams who are National Elementary School Winners for Grades K-2 of the 2010-2011 Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge!

The different teams:

• Used stop watches to measure how long it takes for a car to move through the parking lot, calculated how much gas was burned by idling cars waiting for student pickup, and analyzed queues (lines) with the goal of making them move faster and more efficiently,
• Analyzed plant use of water and soil types, mapped to see where the water runoff goes to find out where the water flows after the rainfall, and found out how much water is used for the school yard.
• Gathered data from one local landfill, and counted plastic bag use at grocery stores.

Congratulations to the Concord Hill Greenies, the From Plastic to Fantastic team, the Water Rescuers team, and all participating teams on successfully taking on the Siemens Challenge! Maybe some of their teachers will share their experience at a National Science Teachers Association conference.

On the NSTA General Science list serve, teachers are sharing ideas and resources for projects that “make a difference with science.” Chicago teacher David White of Louisa May Alcott School  reports that three of his 7th grade Science students volunteered to create a No Idling PowerPoint presentation, designed to convince parents not to idle their cars when they are dropping off or picking up their kids at school. They presented it to the Local School Council, which then decided to adopt a no-idling policy.

“The girls felt very good about making a difference in our school, and when I asked them if I could share their presentation with the NSTA group, they felt even better – knowing that what they did may eventually make a difference at other schools, as well.”

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control supports school efforts to decrease idling and publishes an information sheet on collecting data for this project. 

 Hooray for data collection at every age and for sharing resources,

Peggy

What’s New for June 14 on NSTA’s various online outposts

Highlights of stimulating conversations taking place right now on our listservs:

• Biology—Science Olympiad and online high school biology courses;
• Chemistry—“gag” lab gift ideas, like stink-bombs;
• Earth Science—Glacier activities, the Moh hardness scale, and an excellent mini-tutorial on how to find what you’re looking for on the NSTA journal archives (thanks to Nora McDevitt!;
• Elementary Science—Activities for gifted 8th graders;
• General Science—Labs on forces in motion and matter, interviewing tips and skills;
• Physical Science—Smartboards and lessons.

In NSTA’s online professional learning communities, welcome to our 82 new users this past month!

On our “core site” (www.nsta.org): read about our Urban Science Education Leadership Academy—and then register to attend!

On Facebook, educators are discussing registering for NSTA’s fall conferences, the first of which is in Kansas City.

On LinkedIn, more direct posts from NSTA’s Career Center, and discussions about springtime ferns and next generation education.

And of course, on our Twitter stream, science educators are tweeting and re-tweeting about several freebies that NSTA offers, the upcoming national San Francisco conference, and more!

Renew Your Membership!

Now is the time to insure that you don’t miss a single journal issue or one minute of the time you use to network and build professional connections here in these online communities. Click the link above to renew your membership and insure that NSTA stays in your corner for your science education career!

Many of you are wanting to download the resources from the conference in Philadelphia. Here’s how.

Highlights of stimulating conversations taking place right now on our listservs:

• Chemistry—iron titration, how to deal with dangerous chemicals, and what incoming freshman need to know;
• Earth Science—Friday, May 28th, being celebrated as the 2,595th “birthday of science,” and combining science with art;
• Elementary—lots of recommendations for books to use to teach the Simple Machines;
• Physical Science—conduction radiation activities;
• Physics—the discussion on grading and homework continues, as well as discussions on ferrorfluids.

In NSTA’s online professional learning communities, there is activity in the Tennessee Chapter group (discussing the implementation of a new state framework for science K–12), the Massachusetts chapter has posted their flyer on their upcoming conference, and don’t forget to download all the presentation resources for our Philadelphia Conference–even if you didn’t come, as a member of these communities, you can access all the handouts and session materials! Click here to access a short video that teaches you how to get the handouts.

On our “core site” (www.nsta.org): read about National Lab Day and get involved!

On Facebook, lots of videos and images being shared on fun experiments for families and microscopic imagery.

On LinkedIn, more direct posts from NSTA’s Career Center, and discussions on getting groundwater science education into schools.

And of course, on our Twitter stream, science educators are tweeting and re-tweeting the latest from NSTA Press!

Renew Your Membership!

Now is the time to insure that you don’t miss a single journal issue or one minute of the time you use to network and build professional connections here in these online communities. Click the link above to renew your membership and insure that NSTA stays in your corner for your science education career!

Click on the cover for the Table of Contents

During April, many classes are involved with “projects” related to Earth Day themes. If you want your students to go beyond the make-a-poster-about-the-rainforest type of activity, several articles in this issue illustrate how students can become involved members of their own communities.

In Students for Sustainable Energy, physics students investigated how to reduce the need for energy or the switch to alternative forms of energy in their own community. The article has a list of project topics (generated by the students), a discussion of how community businesses and agencies became involved with the students’ projects, a description of the rubric (including a category for the underlying physics concepts used in the project, and lessons learned. NSTA’s SciLinks has lists of websites related to sustainability, sustainable agriculture, and sustainable development.

The Invasive Plant Species Education Guide describes a series of lessons developed to help students learn about the impact of these species in their own communities. (The actual lessons can be found on the project website. SciLinks also has resources on the topics mentioned in the article, including invasive species and classifying plants.  I recently looked at USDA’s National Invasive Species Information Center, Alien Invasion, Invasive Weeds, and Alien Plant Invaders.

Local air quality was the theme of the activities in The Air Up There, using the 5E Learning Cycle as a framework. The article has many examples of the graphic organizers and data tables that were used in this investigation. Detecting air pollution is one of the many collections of websites in SciLinks that relates to this topic.

In all of these research projects, sharing the results is an important part of the assessment/evaluation. As an alternative to formal reports or PowerPoint presentations, consider the “symposium” format described in Talk Like a Scientist. The student handout and rubrics are good resources.

The Science 2.0 article Wiki, Wiki! briefly describes how this web tool can be used to create communities of learners within your school as well as beyond the classroom walls to share ideas or results. For more ideas, look at the article Wikis for Science Ed Collaboration from the February issue of NSTA Reports.

Check out the Connections for this issue. Even if the article does not quite fit with your lesson agenda, this resource has ideas for handouts, background information sheets, data sheets, rubrics, etc.

Click on the cover for the Table of Contents

If you’re looking for ideas for authentic projects for Earth Day in April or for an end-of-the-year summary project, this issue has some great examples of getting students involved in community-based science. And SciLinks can provide ideas for additional activities or background information.

Environmental issues lend themselves to research on perceptions and attitudes. But creating a survey that will provide “analyzable” data requires careful planning. The authors of Investigating Green: Creating Surveys to Answer Questions outline the process, from establishing the research question to determining the participants, constructing the items, and reporting the results. They include examples to illustrate their suggestions, which could be applied to survey research in other topics. Paper-and-pencil surveys are common, but have you looked at online tools such as Survey Monkey or the “forms” feature in Google Docs? These tools enable participants to respond to items online, and you’ll get the results in a spreadsheet format.

Several projects in this issue describe student investigations of aquatic habitats. A Study of the St. Lawrence River Ecological Habitat includes an anticipation guide, examples of graphic organizers, and a rubric for the project on invasive species. Keep reading for more ideas!

We’ve all done activities on food webs. But in Disrupted food webs: Exploring the relationship between overfishing and dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay, the students compared current data with  historical data and photographs to examine problems of interest related to human impact on food webs. The article describes how the teacher modeled how to graph the data. Bringing scientific inquiry alive using real grass shrimp research reports on how students used real situations to learn about the research process. (Grass shrimp are found in the estuaries of the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico.)

OK, so you don’t live near the St. Lawrence, the Chesapeake Bay, or a grass shrimp habitat. SciLinks has keywords for more background information and activities that could be relevant to the aquatic habitats in your community. Just type in “water” and you’ll get lists of websites on watersheds, water pollution, water quality, and more. Also look at the sites in rivers and streams. I recently looked at Surf Your Watershed from EPA. Click on your state and finetune for your exact location to find out information about the watersheds in your area.

Do you need expensive materials and supplies to engage in inquiry? Not according to the author of Simple Machine Junk Cars. This is the culminating activity for a unit on simple machines. The teacher provides “junk” such as empty boxes, spools, plastic containers, straws, wooden dowels, masking tape. The students are given minimal directions and a rubric: Build a car that includes three simple machines. That’s it! The photographs show the creativity of the students in how they applied what they learned about machines.

Speaking of photographs, two articles in this issue described the use of photography as a tool in science investigations, which has become much easier in the digital age! Picture This: Taking Human Impact Seriously references on the work of Ansel Adams. It includes some helpful tips for taking photographs and a rubric for a photojournal project. You might as well model your work on the best! Photovoice: A Community-Based Socioscientific Pedagogical Tool has a long title also includes suggestions for engaging students in documenting  issues that are important to them, using an example of a water-quality study.

You may also be interested in these other March articles in NSTA journals. Community-Based Inquiry Lessons in the The Science Teacher shows how students created a scientific community in their classroom, investigating real-life situations. In Trash Pie: Is Your School Serving? (from Science and Children), students studied the amount of trash generated in the cafeteria. As a result of their data analysis, the school has embarked on a recycling and waste-reduction program.

Doing projects about the rain forest or other far-away places can certainly be worthwhile, but having students study environmental issues in their own communities will make a lasting impression. Just look at the results of students’ using a variety of resources to create a presentation on local issues in Project Citizen: Students practice democratic principles while conducting community projects.

I’m hoping that secondary teachers will take a look at the articles that describe authentic investigations conducted by young scientists in their communities: Creative Soil Conservation and Boulder Creek Study. The latter has examples of student work as they studied the water quality in their communities, using various indicators, including the presence of aquatic invertebrates. The authors noted that their students did not have much background in the topic of a “watershed.” If your students need this information also, use the keyword watershed in SciLinks. SciLinks also has websites with information and activities on topics related to soil for grades K-4 and 5-8 (e.g. types of soil, soil erosion, microorganisms in soil).

From hurricanes to earthquakes, forest fires mudslides, and record-setting snowstorms and rainfall, children often ask “Can it happen here?” Three articles are related to this topic. Along with Can We Protect Our Communities From Natural Disasters?,  check out the SciLinks keyword disasters for grades 5-8. Even if you’re not in an earthquake zone, activities such as those in Shake It Up and The Built Environment tap into the creativity of future engineers. SciLinks has lists of related websites on the topic of earthquake resistant structures and the science of bridges. One of my favorites is Building Big: All About Bridges from PBS.

If you like the ideas in the article How It’s Made, SciLinks has more information on pencils (5–8).  Action Figures describes how to hook students into a study of the skeletal system. Even though my curriculum did not include human anatomy, I learned that a brief review of the human skeleton helped students to connect to the skeletons of other vertebrates. In SciLinks, search for bones (5–8) or skeletal system (5–8), which includes other systems of the body. Three examples include Bird Skull Collection, the Mr. Bones interactive puzzle, and Virtual Body, which is also available in Spanish

To extend your activities on growing seeds, check out From Mystery Seed to Mangrove Island (I wonder what other variations on the mystery materials teachers who do not live in Florida can come up with!) and The Farmer in the Lab, which makes the investigation more complex and challenging for older students.

Many teachers are looking for ideas to integrate science with other content areas. It’s challenging to keep the project focused on a theme or essential question, rather than merely putting together a collection of “activities.” Living Off the Land dispels some of the misconceptions children have about Native American cultures as they focus on the relationships between people and natural resources. Outdoor Classrooms has suggestions and resources to use a corner of the schoolyard, a window box, or an outdoor center. And check with a local rescue or rehabilitation center if you have students similar to the Turtle Girls and want to give them ownership of their project.

I’m going to reread Using Learning Progressions to Monitor Progress Across Grades. I wonder how this way of assessing students in science processes is interpreted in schools where science takes a back seat to test prep in reading and math? I’m also curious as to how students beyond grade 4 would “score” on this. This article has related resources in the Connections for this issue, along with ideas for handouts, background information sheets, data sheets, rubrics, for several of the other articles.

When I saw the theme for this issue, Teaching with the Community, what came to mind was students visiting community resources such as museums, zoos, and parks on field trips or students and teachers using the community as a classroom. But the articles in this issue have other interpretations of “community.”

The State High Biodiesel Project describes a collaboration between the science department and the agricultural science program to turn fryer oil from the cafeteria into an alternative energy source. Perhaps other institutions in the community can learn from these students (and their teachers). On the web, you can find out how to Make Your Own Biodiesel and the authors provide the details of their lessons on Alternative Fuels

The community engaged in Collaboration at the Nanoscale consists of high school classes and university faculty. They formed a scientific community to study microbes and viruses safely, using advanced technology. For more information on the topic of microbiology, go to SciLinks and enter the term “micro” for lists of websites related to microbes, microbiology, microscopes, and electron microscopy.

Student research on a topic of interest to their communities, such as indoor air quality, is demonstrated in the article The Big Sky Inside.According to the authors, the data collected by the students is being used beyond the project to investigate other air quality issues. If you want to get some ideas for other projects, check out Solving Environmental Problems in SciLinks.

Use the article EQUIPping Teachers to learn how to change your classroom into a community of inquiry. The authors describe a tool/rubric that can help you improve the level of inquiry in your class activities. It’s an excellent article that everyone should read. For more information on inquiry, see Making It Inquiry 9-12 in SciLinks.

At first when I saw this issue, I thought of community partnerships, in which students work with organizations outside of school. But I realized by reading the articles, that the activities and resources also apply to the communities of learners within our own classrooms and to projects that bring people together to learn.

The article Making Science Relevant describes how students can contribute to their communities by working together on water-monitoring programs. A quick search in SciLinks using keywords such as watershed or invertebrates brings up several related websites:

• I personally cringe when someone uses words such as wacky, crazy, yucky, or creepy when describing living things, but the Wonderful, Wacky Water Critters site is actually good, despite the name. It’s written more for younger students, but if you have secondary students who struggle with reading, this may be just right for them. Among the resources for students of any age is a nice poster of aquatic invertebrates and an online dichotomous key to help students identify and become more familiar with these indicator species.
• Many sites refer back to The Stream Study. This comprehensive resource from the Izaak Walton League can get you started on doing your own investigation of water quality. I wish I would have had this when I was doing stream studies with my students and at summer science camps. It would have saved me a lot of time making up data sheets and guides!

This article is followed by How Accurate are Student-Collected Data? Recreating this study with your own students could be a neat way to investigate the concepts of reliability and instrumentation. The SciLinks code mentioned in this article TST040802 has a variety of sites, ranging from examples of data sets, online calculators, and one of my favorites Create a Graph to help students organize and display their data.

TYPO ALERT! In the article Cougars and Community, the SciLinks code is incorrect! To get to sites related to “Tracking Animals by Satellite,” use the code TST040801 OK, so there are no lions in your neck of the woods, but the article outlines an action plan for combining student investigations with community action that could apply to a variety of situations.

A decade ago, I had a conversation with a school board member, who believed it was the job of the schools to prepare students for specific jobs. I mentioned that in the area of technology, we would somehow have to prepare students for jobs that didn’t exist yet. This issue’s “Career of the Month,” Graphic Infomation Systems (GIS) Specialist, is an example of such a career. What a fascinating way to combine geography, technology, and data analysis! To find more information on careers, go to SciLinks and use the keyword careers.

Why are we studying this? What good will this do me? I know there are teachers who enjoy the challenge of students’ asking questions such as these and others who consider these questions to be disrespectful or distracting (and from some students they may be!). But I must confess that I was a questioner in school. If we were studying a new topic or doing an activity, I needed to know what the point was. It really didn’t matter to me what the teacher said the point was, as long as I could see that there was a point, beyond getting a grade or doing something for a test. And, regardless of the subject, if the point involved anything creative, I was hooked!

Some students find topics in science to be inherently interesting. The teacher could read from a textbook, and these students would still be interested. But for other students, teachers need to help students to see how the content is relevant. And even if students aren’t particularly interested in a topic (my own high school economics class comes to mind), the teacher can hook the students with personal anecdotes, interesting questions, cooperative activities, hands-on projects, trade books, or multimedia. The focus of this issue of Science Scope is on how to make science relevant.

The article Volcano Resumes shows how students can be engaged by a new twist on the typical “report.” In addition to the websites suggested by the author, the SciLinks keywords volcano or ring of fire can help students get started on their websearch. Students could also use websites to find volcano pictures for the resumes. And if the students would plot the coordinates on a map, they could see the “ring of fire” concept.

Who hasn’t an idea for an invention? I saw a quote today that said “If necessity is the mother of invention, laziness is the grandmother.” Middle-schoolers may relate to that! Problem Solving with Patents adds another dimension to the topic of inventions by looking at the patent process. Go to SciLinks and enter the keyword inventor to look at the inventive process through websites such as Invention Dimension from MIT with a searchable archive of inventors and a handbook for patenting an invention. You can also use the keywords Alexander Graham Bell or Thomas Edison for sites on these important inventors.

For information related to Bumpy, Sticky, and Shaky: Nanoscale Science and the Curriculum use nanoscience as keyword in SciLinks. Two of sites in this topic could be of interest to students: Introduction to Nanotechnology and Nanokids.

Investigating your own neighborhood and reporting the observations to a national database can be both relevant and authentic (two buzzwords in one sentence!). In addition to the projects described in Wanted: Citizen Scientists (Project Feederwatch, Bird Sleuth, and Monarch Watch), I recently heard of Project BudBurst, in which students, gardeners, and other interested folks observe flowering plants in their gardens, schoolyards, and lawns and then enter the observations into a national database to help scientists study the effects of climate change through the timing of flowers and foliage. The site has lots of ideas and resources (use the “Participate” link to get to the teacher resources).

Going on a Science Trek shows how students can demonstrate what they are learning in creative ways. I’ve seen a lot of lessons where the objective stated that the “students will be able to create a PowerPoint” (or diorama, poster, report). But in a science course, creating a report or exhibit is not really the objective. The PowerPoint, diorama, report, or poster is a way for students to communicate what science concepts they are learning. And this article makes this point with lots of ideas! What can be more relevant than providing many ways for students to use their creativity to solve a problem and communicate the results?